French film photo galley for 1920

French films of the 1920s

Eldorado (1921)

El Dorado was one of first popular successes for the avant-garde French director Marcel L’Herbier, who went on to make some of the finest films of the silent era (most famously his 1929 masterpiece, L’Argent). Despite its comparative obscurity, El Dorado is a mesmerising work and ought to be considered as one of the best examples of early French cinema... [More...]

Catherine (1924)

Jean Renoir, one of the greatest figures in French cinema, began his film-making career with this poignant little melodrama, an obscure film which deserves wider appreciation. Renoir’s multiple talents are revealed by the fact that not only did he co-direct the film, with Albert Dieudonné, but he also co-authored the script and produced it (with money inherited from his father’s... [More...]

Entr'acte (1924)

This extraordinary early film from director René Clair was originally made to fill an interval between two acts of Francis Picabia’s new ballet, Relâche, at the Théâtre des Champs- Elysées in Paris in 1924. Picabia famously wrote a synopsis for the film on one sheet of note paper, headed Maxim’s (the famous Parisian restaurant)... [More...]

L'Inhumaine (1924)

Although much has been written about L'Inhumaine's status as a showcase for 1920s avant garde art, this is true primarily for only the first half of the film. In reality, L'Inhumaine could be said to be two films in one, somewhat clumsily joined at the hip. The first half is indeed something of an artistic canvas which seemingly flaunts Cubist set design for its own sake... [More...]

La Fille de l'eau (1925)

Jean Renoir’s first full length film, La Fille de l’eau, is an improbable yet compelling melange of melodrama, neo-realism, farce and surrealism. Although the film oscillates from one extreme to the other, between high drama and light comedy, between naturalistic and highly stylised photography, it manages to captivate its audience with its typically Renoir-esque blend of romantic... [More...]

Les Misérables (1925)

Of the numerous film adaptations of Victor Hugo’s celebrated work, Henri Fescourt’s four and a half hour epic is reputed to be the finest, remaining doggedly faithful to the original novel in terms of both content and atmosphere. The film is divided into four parts: (1) L’Évasion de Jean Valjean... [More...]

Paris qui dort (1925)

Although lacking the maturity and stature of other silent films of the period, Paris qui dort is nonetheless one of the most important films in the history of French cinema. It is the first film of the great French film director, René Clair, and also - although it was not seen as such at the time – the first ever science-fiction movie... [More...]

Poil de carotte (1925)

The 1925 version of Poil de carotte was Julien Duvivier’s first notable success. Although less well-known and far less regarded than his subsequent sound films of the 1930s and ’40s, this, the finest of Duvivier’s silent films, reveals a young filmmaker of immense talent and is a work of acute poetry and poignancy. The darker aspects that we see in the director's later films... [More...]

Emak-Bakia (1926)

Of the small handful of films which the great surrealist artist Man Ray made in the 1920s, Emak-Bakia is arguably the one which adheres most closely to the principles of Dadaist surrealism. It is also perhaps the most baffling of Man Ray’s films, involving some of his most extraordinary abstract visual imagery, with far less recognisable images than his other films... [More...]

Nana (1926)

Jean Renoir’s second full-length film is this lavish and fairly faithful adaptation of Emile Zola’s classic novel, Nana. The film’s extravagances include spacious, overly decorated sets and two magnificent set pieces – a horse race and an open air ball (complete with a stunningly choreographed cancan sequence)... [More...]

Le Joueur d'échecs (1927)

Despite its comparative obscurity, Le Joueur d’échecs is one of the great cinematic achievements of the silent era, a sumptuous blend of historical wartime epic, romantic fantasy and farce. Its awesome scale and breathtaking cinematographic innovation (including some daring use of superposition and hand-held camerawork) call to mind another great film of this period... [More...]

Marquitta (1927)

Practically ruined after the commercial failure of his lavish period piece Nana (1926), Jean Renoir willingly agreed to direct this conventional melodrama for the production company La Société des Artistes Réunis. Not only did it provide him with some financial security, it also allowed him to further develop his directorial technique... [More...]

Napoléon (1927)

One of the most ambitious films in cinema history, Abel Gance’s epic six-hour long Napoléon is both a stunningly visual work of cinema and a poetically beautiful telling of the life of France’s most famous general. The film was originally to have been made as a six-part series about the full life of Napoléon... [More...]

L'Étoile de mer (1928)

A significant film from the Surrealist movement of the 1920s, directed by Man Ray, L’Étoile de mer is a perplexing and haunting short film, which bears more than a passing resemblance to Buñuel’s Un chien Andalou. Inspired by a poem from Robert Desnos, the film contrasts the beauty of a starfish with that of a lost sweetheart... [More...]

L'Argent (1928)

Marcel L’Herbier’s L’Argent is now universally regarded as one of the true great masterpieces of the silent era of film, although this has not always been the case. Up until the 1970s, the film was largely overlooked and it was only after its full restoration in that decade that the film was accorded its current status as a major classic... [More...]

La Chute de la maison Usher (1928)

For many film enthusiasts, Jean Epstein’s La chute de la maison Usher represents the pinnacle of artistic achievement in European cinema of the 1920s. Epstein was already an accomplished film-maker by the time he came to make this film, having distinguished himself for his bold experimental techniques in such films as La Glace à trois faces (1927)... [More...]

La Coquille et le clergyman (1928)

A likely candidate for the most bewildering film in the history of cinema, La Coquille et le clergyman was the product of two mutually incompatible creative talents of the 1920s – the writer Antonin Artaud and the feminist Germaine Dulac. Coming a year before Buñuel’s Un chien andalou (1929), La Coquille et le clergyman must have come as a shock to the censors and any... [More...]

La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc (1928)

Unquestionably the best film version of the Joan of Arc story ever made. A masterpiece of visual poetry which captures not just the brutality of Joan’s betrayal and sacrifice,... [More...]

Tire au flanc (1928)

Jean Renoir’s most overtly comical and anarchistic film, Tire au flanc is the definitive comedy of army life, a popular subject at the time (stemming most probably from the unpopularity of military service). Noticeably less restrained and less technically accomplished than Renoir’s other silent films, it is clear that the director’s main preoccupation here was to entertain... [More...]

Un chapeau de paille d'Italie (1928)

René Clair skilful transposition of Labiche’s play from the 1850s to the 1890s provides an outrageously funny satire on bourgeois attitudes. Although the plot is childishly simple, the film is replete with content, showing the director’s mastery of both visual comedy and film photography. The period setting (la belle époque) was chosen to emphasise the absurdity... [More...]

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